Enchanted
by Rasberry Kiss
Summary: As a child, Kagome had an innocent imagination that allowed her to discover and befriend youkai. After growing up and forgetting her childish fantasies, she is reminded of them again. This time experiencing the harsher world of the youkai, while realizing
1. Prologue

Enchanted  
By: Rasberry Kiss  
  
Disclaimer: alas..no..I do not own the most kawaii Inuyasha. ::sigh::.how do I manage to live?!  
  
PROLOGUE:  
  
Kagome took another long drag from her cigarette and dropped it into her mother's beer bottle. She figured that would be a nice little test for how drunk Aika was --see if she would swallow a butt whole.  
They were up on stage still, Aika and Seiji and the rest of "Drowned World". It had been a bad set, and seeing them break down the equipment, she could tell that they knew it too. It didn't really matter, the sound system was loud and scratchy and everyone had kept boozing and smoking and shouting so she doubted the manager really cared.  
  
Some people had even started dancing.  
  
The barkeep sneered at her again and offered her a drink "on the house".  
  
"Water." Kagome smirked, brushing back her ragged ebony hair, and pocketing a couple of matchboxes when his back was turned.  
  
Then her mother was next to her, taking a deep dreg of the beer before sputtering it all over the bar.  
  
Kagome couldn't help the laughter that escaped her mouth. Aika looked at her with confusion and disbelief.  
  
"Go help Seiji with the equipment, Kagome." Aika sighed, her voice hoarse and raspy from singing. She was smoothing her sweaty hair back from her face. Her lipstick was rubbed off the inside of her lips onto one of her cheeks, almost in a Robert Smith tribute.  
  
Kagome thought she looked a little tired.  
  
She jumped off the stool and climbed the stairs, that lead onto the stage. She started to pick up the stuff randomly, not really taking any notice as to what instrument belonged to who. She noticed Seiji was frowning at her, so she stuck to what was her mother's, rolling her eyes discreetly. She glanced at him again and saw that his eyes were slightly glazed over. "Hey, you got any yen on you?"  
Kagome nodded and took out 20 yen. She had a little more, and he probably knew it -- She'd come straight from Fei Ming's Take-out. Delivering Chinese food might pay shit, but she still got paid more doing that than she would say.being in a band..  
  
He took the yen and ambled off to the bar, probably getting some drinks to take with them.  
  
Kagome picked up Aika's stuff and started dragging it through the crowd. People mostly moved out of her way. The moist autumn breeze outside the bar was a soft, a quiet relief, even stinking as it was with iron, exhaust fumes and different bits and particles of pollution here and there.  
  
It took her a few minutes to get the van loaded up. She skipped back inside, intent on getting her mother in the van before someone smashed open a window and skived off with the equipment or an instrument. You couldn't leave anything just sitting in a car in the more dodgy part of Tokyo anymore. The last time Aika's van had been broken into, they'd taken only a bottle of shampoo and an old sweater.  
  
The boy checking ID's stared at her longer this time, but didn't say anything. It was pretty late, almost last call. Aika was still sitting at the bar, dragging on a cigarette and chugging down something that looked to Kagome, something stronger than just beer. Seiji was talking to a guy with long, wavy black hair. The man looked out of place in the bar, he was nicely dressed, but Seiji was talking animatedly with him. She happened to catch a glance from the man. His eyes were a pool of black, reflecting brightly in the darkened bar. Kagome shuddered.  
  
But then again, Kagome saw odd things like this all the time. She had learned to overlook them.  
  
"Van's all ready to go." Kagome told her mother.  
  
Aika nodded, not attempting to listen. "uh..can I have a cig sweetheart?"  
  
Kagome unzippered her bag and handed a cigarette and lighter to her mother.  
  
Her mother bent into the lighter and Kagome caught a whiff of whiskey and sweat, which seemed to linger frequently on her. After the cigarette was properly lit, her mother took a long drag.  
  
"Ready to go, guys?" Seiji asked, Kagome jumped. nearly having a heart attack. It wasn't that she hadn't sensed his presence behind her, his voice seemed especially silky. Almost as if, he wasn't just doing it out of normalcy, as if he was purposely trying to hide a the real emotion in his real voice.  
  
Aika's drunkenness caused her not to notice this. She guzzled down the last drop of her drink and got up, putting her cigarette out in the ash tray. " yeah.lets get the hell outta here."  
  
A short moment later, Seiji lifted his arm, as though he were going to punch Aika in the back. Kagome acted without realizing why, crashing into the side of him. Causing him to lose his balance, and topple to the ground, while she steadied herself on a bar stool. She noticed the knife go ricocheting away just as he fell onto the floor.  
  
Seiji's eyes seemed to lose focus, devoid of any emotion at all. His pupils were dilated and his mouth was slightly open, taking short breathes.  
  
Ryoko, Drowned World's bassist, grabbed Seiji's wrist. Seiji had enough time to slap-punch Ryoko in the face before attempting to run out of the bar, before the bar tender and a few other men pinned him to the ground and called the police.  
  
By the time the police were there however, Seiji had recovered his senses, and hadn't remembered anything that had happened. He was furious, screaming and cursing at anyone - Aika, Kagome herself, different members of the band.  
  
The police decided it would be best if they drove Kagome and Aika to their apartment. Once they got home, Aika told Kagome to pack up her clothes and any belongings she wanted to take with her.  
  
Kagome grabbed any clothes she could, shoving them into old plastic trash bags. Aika was on the phone, hysterically crying to anyone who would listen, and allow them a place to stay.  
  
"Sweet heart," Aika sighed, "We're.going to have to crash at ojiichan's ."  
  
"Did you just call him?" Kagome asked sleepily, meanwhile trying to place her cure records safely inside her trash bag. They hadn't seen ojiichan in at least 10 years. He lived in Hokkaido, and it was too far a drive for the two women in their dilapidated van.  
  
"Yes...I had woken him up and he's not very happy.."  
  
Kagome couldn't recall the last time her mother looked so drained and tired. "It'll only be for a couple of months, oh and you can visit that little friend of yours.whats her name again?" "Sango.mom." Kagome rolled her eyes. She had hoped especially that her mom hadn't been referring to her about the youkai crap again. She wouldn't have been too happy to hear yet another story about her cute little imaginary youkai friends. "The one you, uh, write and email right?" She inhaled off her half finished cigarette and threw her remaining pack into her pocket book.  
  
Kagome walked into the kitchen and got out a soda. She was actually half excited to be going to see Sango again. 'Gods.' she thought sulkily, and rolled her eyes. 'ojiichan..oh fucking great.' 


	2. The Merry Go Round

Enchanted  
By: Rasberry Kiss  
  
Disclaimer: RK: yeah yeah we *all* know I don't own inu yasha.or maybe Inu: what are you talking about wench? No one can own me.. RK: *pulls out back up: ramen* here inu inu inu Inu: *runs over* gimme gimme!!! RK: weeelll..only if you tell everybody I own you! Inu: OK OK *grabs at ramen* RK: *holds it JUST out of his reach* say it!! Inu: YOU OWN ME!!! YOU OWN MEEE!!! RK: *gives him ramen and pats him on the head* good boy.. ((hey that was kinda sexy though..YOU OWN ME! YOU OWN ME!!.I *wish* he said that.))  
  
Chapter One:  
  
Kagome walked down the desolate beach, while her sandals caught the sand and tossed it up against her leg. She sniffed at the air around her, it felt damp and stank of salt and dead fish. The ocean crashed against the beach roughly. Its loud echoing sound distracted her, trying to push Kagome's other thoughts out of her head. Its brutal force making her focus on just the peaceful sounds of its sheer natural vitality.  
  
The sun was setting now casting a harsh orange-red line down the center of the water. There was a pure, unadulterated silence on the beach, and Kagome was calmed by it. She enjoyed just twirling in the sand.  
  
She dreamed she was dancing for the forthcoming moon.  
  
Soon enough, Sango's voice brought her back to reality.  
  
"Come ON..weirdo.." Sango giggled. It was nice to see Kagome after all this time. She missed her friend, and emails just didn't seem to substantiate as deep a friendship as theirs had always been. Sango walked up the hill on the beach to walk on the street. She skipped over the gutter of soggy leaves and continued down the side walk. As she turned to look at her friend, her glittered eyes sparkled brightly, caught in a ray of the moonlight.  
  
Kagome returned Sango's gaze and smiled. She and her mom had been staying at Ojiichan's for a month so far, and even though Aika kept saying how they were leaving any day now, Kagome knew there was nowhere else they had to be. Kagome had grown to love the shrine that was by her house, finding peace in just being there. She had also grown accustomed to sitting under the shinboku tree and reading faery tales underneath of it.  
  
The beach hotels that the two girls walked by were long closed and boarded up for the winter. Even the arcades and souvenir stores were closed. Chipped paint littered underneath a candy store's sign  
  
Sango stopped for a moment to grab out her light pink lip gloss and stumbled as she attempted to apply it to her lips while walking at the same time. Kagome skipped up to her best friend, her faux fur jacket flying open, letting a cold breeze permeate her whole body.  
  
"We should go.SKINNY DIPPING!!" Kagome laughed. She was giddy with the night's breeze, as it had infested in her lungs, her brain, her hair, and her eyes making her feel euphoric.  
  
"The water's below freezing, Kagome." Sango sighed "Nothing, not even a million yen would make me go in there." Sango eyed the ocean uneasily as it roared against the sand and left a watery trail. "By the way, your hair looks fucked up. Guys don't like weird fucked up girls, they like."  
  
Kagome stopped and stared at the sky, at the scattered stars and finally kept her hard gaze on the moon. Her blue cat eye glasses reflecting the moon. The little jewels in the corners, shimmering and dancing in the light. Kagome rolled her eyes. "Well, who should I pretend to be tonite?"  
  
Sango looked hurt and taken aback. "I want you to be YOU of course. But don't you WANT a boyfriend??" "Who gives a fuck about boys. Hey, lets go find some youkai!" "Youkai?" Sango asked warily. "yeah! Yeah know, scary, GR" Kagome made an attempt at a scary face only to be acknowledged by Sango with a brow raise and a roll of the eyes. Despite this, Kagome kept going. "And we're going to find them especially while swimming naked in the ocean a week before Halloween!"  
  
Sango stared a long time at her mentally unstable friend. Kagome seemed to not notice this, because she had turned to look at the ocean once again. "You know what the sun looks like?" "No, what?" Sango inquired unenthusiastically. ".like he slit his wrists in a bath-tub, and the blood is spilling into the water, turning the water red." Kagome giggled. "Gods, Kagome, that's so gross."  
  
"And there's the moon, just watching. She's smirking, sitting there, knowing that she drove him to kill himself. Basking in death." "Kagome." Kagome twirled around, giggling and dancing in the sand.  
  
"Kagome, why are you always bullshiting around. Lying is going to get you into some serious shit later on in life." Sango sighed as she saw her friend took no notice of her warnings. Still spinning and dancing.  
  
"Seriously, Kagome, you remember those weird little youkai animals you used to get made fun of for.the kitsune.and.what was his name again?" "Which one? Shippou the kitsune or Kirara the neko?" "my gods, you still remember there names and everything?"  
  
Kagome hesitated, cocking her head to the side. "of course.why wouldn't I?" Sango smirked "oh please, kagome, you were obsessed with them." Kagome looked down at her feet and kicked at the sand idly. " I was six years old Sango, I had a.vivid imagination. It helped keep me free."  
  
A comfortable silence allowed the two girls to get a good view of their surroundings. The decrepit merry-go-round building had long been abandoned. Dusty angelic faces, surrounded by chipped rays of hair divided the broken panes. The front of it was windowed, revealing the grimy dirt covered pavement. Glass shining and glittering in tiny fragments on the floor.  
Kagome could hear faint sounds coming from the building. Sango dropped the butt of her cigarette onto the street, and skipped towards the desheveled merry-go-round.  
  
As Kagome reached it though, she realized the door had been boarded up and that she needed to find a way in. Kagome hoisted herself onto one of the window's ledge and swung her legs over so that she was facing inside. The window was long broken and shattered on the floor, and as she slid inside, a sharp triangle of glass cut against her thigh and a bead of blood started to fall down her leg.  
  
"damnit." she hissed to herself. She wiped her blood on her finger and then sucked on it. Tasting the coppery metallic liquid.  
  
Layers of dust and stains covered the once-intricate moldings. The inside of the room was spray painted with names and indistinguishable writings. It was mostly bare, besides the old operation controls in the corner and some random pieces of paper advertising bands, different clubs and diners, littering the floor.  
  
"Higurashi Kagome, you remember me right?" Sano smirked. He was tall and lanky, with dirty brown hair falling on his forehead and covering his eyes.  
  
"I think I remember you throwing crayons at the back of my head on the bus rides home in. kindergarten.was it?"  
  
He chuckled "Right, right. I forgot that. Are you still mad?"  
  
She smiled, but underneath it there was no emotion. "of course not." As soon as she had set foot in that room, she realized her giddy and enthusiastic mood had quickly ebbed out of her system, making her feel anxious and depressed. Sango had gone over to another side of the room. Talking with Eri and Kouga. Kouga was handsome, with long dark hair tied into a pony tail. He had even darker, more intense eyes.  
  
He held up a bottle of bourbon to her, his form of a greeting. She forced another smile as she took it from him and he resumed gutting a cigar.  
  
"I brought you some candy." Sango giggled to Kouga. She handed him some snickers and a kit-kat.  
  
"I brought you some candy!" Sano mocked in a high pitched voice attempt at making fun of Sango. Kagome walked around the circular room. It was beautiful. Ripe with decay and rust. The slight sizzle of the bourbon on her throat made her feel like static was all over her body.  
  
"So Kagome. What's Tokyo like? I hear you guys were so poor your mom had to whore herself." Sano snickered, while kouga looked at him in disgust.  
  
Sango stomped up to him and slapped him across the face. "Shut UP dickhead!!"  
  
Kagome stood there and laughed. "No...but close."  
  
They all looked at her in rapt attention. "She was in a band."  
  
Kouga looped a painted finger into a belt ring on Sango's jeans and pulled her towards him, and then kissing her.  
  
"well.damn." Sano whistled to himself.  
  
Kouga got up and started to play hacky sack with an empty beer bottle. Kagome looked at the bottle before anxiously taking another long swallow of the liquid. Her brain was already buzzing pleasantly. She moved back into a darker room, and it appeared to be where all the old equipment and ride pieces were kept. She stepped farther into the room and tried to turn on the light. She soon realized how stupid that would be, considering the fact that the lights probably hadn't been turned on for at least twenty years. Dust had settled on everything, which caused Kagome to sneeze, stumbling back a bit. But then her eyes fell on the horse, and she ignored the rest of the room.  
  
He was perfect--gleaming an ivory white and covered in glued on pieces of mirror. His mane and tail were a deep black with azure strips, and his sattle and bridal were a striking lavender and navy, with little intricate designs on it in a darker gray. Last she noticed it's eyes, which were painted a unfathomable blue, with little golden specks.  
  
Kagome realized why it had been left behind though, one of its long white legs had been shattered. Splinters hung from where the leg should have been.  
  
Shippo would have loved this.  
  
She had thought that a lot since she had left Hokkaido, ten years ago.  
  
My friends would have loved this.  
  
When she'd first seen Tokyo lit up, all the stars and bright lights shining brilliantly, she'd thought they would come. But they never did when she was in the city. And now she felt like all the imagination had been used up in that moment, and she had none left.  
  
She tried to set up the horse on the other three legs. Kagome pulled it towards her and swung one leg over the back and sat unsteadily on the saddle using her feet to balance herself. She brushed her hand over its mane, its back and its muzzle, imagining she felt the silky fur beneath her fingers.  
  
In her mind, she saw the horse grazing underneath her. Firm and strong. She grabbed the mane and a slightly awkward feeling of pins and needles spun through her limbs. The horse whinnied softly beneath her, ready to leap out of this room and out onto the beach. She threw her head back, sighing.  
  
"Kagome?" A timid voice grabbed her back to reality and out of her daydream. Kouga was standing near the doorway, regarding her hesitantly. For a moment, she still had that desire to take the horse and just gallop away. But before she could get a firm grip on this thought, she was drawn back again to reality when her cheeks reddened and felt the heat radiate off her face.  
  
Seeing him in the light for the first time that night, she noticed the two golden earrings in his ears. His hair was much more brown than she had originally thought. As he reached towards her, she became aware of the muscles in his arm contract and expand.  
  
He slowly walked towards her, reaching his hand out again, then glaring at it, as though he didn't remember deciding to do that. Instead he petted the head of the horse quietly.  
  
"I.I saw you.I saw what you just did." he said. "I.how."  
  
"Where's Sango?" Kagome would have thought he had been teasing, if it weren't for the perplexed and serious look etched on his face. He had begun stroking the animal's mane.  
  
"She was.worried about you." He hesitated before continuing "How did you do that?"  
  
"Do.what?" She was afraid now. There was no mocking or teasing smile on his face.  
  
"I saw it stand up." His voice was so low and raspy she was certain she had imagined him talking. His hand dropped from the mane to her thigh and slid upward and underneath her skirt.  
  
She had noticed his hand slowly moving towards her. The touch of his fingers sent a startling sensation through her body. She had been struck dumb by it for only a moment before she sprang from the horse, letting it drop unceremoniously to the floor. Making a soft crunching sound once it hit the hard, cold ground.  
  
He reached for her before she could even think about it. Attempting to steady her after jumping off the horse. He tried to grab her shirt and steady her after jumping roughly off the horse, only to miss and grab hold of her neckline.  
  
She heard the ripping sound after he seized her, and when she hit the ground looked down and saw a long gash in her shirt.  
  
"What the." 


End file.
